Chương 13
"Yes."
"Does she know Mom knows?"
Julian's silence answered.
Then my phone rang.
The number was unfamiliar.
South Carolina.
Julian stared at the screen.
"Don't answer that."
I looked at him.
"Why?"
His face went pale.
"Because that's Maren."
I answered before Julian could tell me not to again.
"Hello?"
For a moment, there was only breathing.
Then a woman said, "Is this Sloan?"
Her voice was low and controlled, the kind of control that sounded practiced rather than natural.
"Yes."
"This is Maren."
Julian closed his eyes.
Rebecca stepped closer to the door.
Maren said, "Julian told me you found the company filings."
I looked at him through the glass.
"He told you quickly."
"He called from the highway."
"Did he tell you he forged my name?"
Silence.
Then, "He told me you would say that."
Julian muttered something I couldn't hear.
I unlocked the dead bolt but left the chain secured.
Rebecca grabbed my wrist.
I shook my head.
I wasn't letting him in.
I wanted him to hear.
"Maren, what did Julian promise you?"
She took a long breath.
"That Charles's arrangement would continue."
"What arrangement?"
"Money for my son and me."
"Because Charles was your father?"
The pause answered before she did.
"Yes."
Rebecca sat down on the bottom stair.
Maren continued.
"My mother told me when I was sixteen."
"Did Eleanor know?"
"Not then."
"When did she find out?"
"After my mother got sick."
Julian leaned his forehead briefly against the doorframe outside.
I almost felt sorry for him.
Almost.
"Did Charles steal family money to support you?"
Maren's voice sharpened.
"Charles moved his own money."
"Julian says millions came out of family companies."
"Julian says whatever makes Julian useful."
He looked up.
"Put me on speaker."
"No."
Maren heard him anyway.
"He's there."
"On the porch."
A short, humorless laugh.
"Of course he is."
Julian said through the door, "Maren, don't."
She ignored him.
"Sloan, I didn't know the education money came from your children."
Julian knocked once against the glass.
"Maren."
"I didn't."
Her voice cracked for the first time.
"I knew he was moving money through old Mercer entities."
"I knew Charles had left obligations that Eleanor's lawyers hadn't honored."
"I thought Julian was using money Charles had hidden."
"Did you ask?"
"Yes."
"What did he say?"
"That the money was his."
Julian turned away from the door.
I stared at the back of his coat.
"Did you threaten to expose him?"
"No."
"Julian says you did."
"I told him I was going to Eleanor because payments stopped."
"That's a threat."
Maren's anger surfaced.
"No."
"That's a consequence."
I understood immediately why Julian had feared her.
She did not sound intimidated by him.
"Do you have the original records?"
I asked.
"Some."
"Would you give them to Eleanor's attorney?"
Another silence.
"Yes."
Julian spun back.
"Maren, think very carefully."
I held the phone closer to the door.
She laughed once.
"There's the voice."
"What voice?"
Rebecca asked.
"The one he uses when he wants you to think your next mistake will destroy everyone."
Nobody answered.
Maren continued.
"I've been hearing it since Charles died."
Julian hit the door with the flat of his hand.
"Because I kept you from being thrown out with nothing."
"You kept paying me because the records protected you."
"Both things can be true."
"Yes."
Maren's voice softened.
"They can."
That was the strangest part of the whole night.
No one fit cleanly into the role I wanted.
Maren had accepted money she knew came through secret structures.
Eleanor had chosen silence.
Charles had hidden a daughter and assets.
Rebecca had driven away.
Grant had looked elsewhere.
I had accepted explanations that made my marriage easier to survive.
And Julian had used every weakness he found.
"Maren, send the records to Martin."
I said it before Julian could interrupt again.
"You know who he is?"
"Yes."
Julian closed his eyes.
Something in him seemed to collapse.
Not dramatically.
His shoulders simply dropped.
"Then it's done."
He said it so quietly I nearly missed it.
Rebecca stood.
"What is?"
Julian looked at her.
"The version of this where nobody goes to lawyers."
"That version died before dinner."
He nodded.
For once, he did not argue.
I told Maren I would call her tomorrow.
Before hanging up, she said, "Sloan?"
"Yes?"
"I'm sorry about your kids."
The apology made me angrier than I expected.
"Don't apologize to me."
She understood.
The call ended.
Julian stood on the porch with both hands in his pockets.
"Can I come inside now?"
"No."
His face tightened.
"We need to discuss what happens next."
"We will."
"When?"
"Through attorneys."
That landed.
Rebecca looked at me.
Julian stared as if I had suddenly spoken another language.
"You're serious."
"Yes."
"About divorce?"
"I didn't say divorce."
"You don't need to."
For eleven years, I had imagined that sentence would terrify me.
Instead, it made the floor feel solid.
"I need you to stay somewhere else."
"This is my home."
"It's mine too."
"You can't legally throw me out."
"I'm asking."
"And if I say no?"
I looked at him through the glass.
"Then I'll leave with the kids tomorrow and let lawyers sort out the house."
Julian stared at me for a long time.
Finally he nodded.
"One night."
"No."
"Sloan."
"Until we agree otherwise."
He laughed bitterly.
"You've had Rebecca in your ear for six hours and suddenly you're issuing terms."
Rebecca opened her mouth.
I raised a hand.
"No."
She stopped.
I looked directly at Julian.
"This is me."
Something passed over his face that looked very much like grief.
That almost broke me.
Not because I wanted him back.
Because I remembered loving him.
Love does not vanish simply because evidence arrives.
Sometimes it remains after trust is gone, useless and embarrassing, like a key to a house that no longer exists.
Julian stepped away from the door.
May you like
"Tell Lily and Leo I love them."
"Tell them yourself when they're ready to hear it."
